Our "long time coming", first time ever, very magical trip to WDW!Pictures 1/27!

So here it is more than a month since we returned from our first WDW trip ever and I have been seriously debating the wisdom of starting a trip report. I'm just not sure I'll be all that good at it and although I meant to take notes I diden't manage to so I'm not sure I'll be able to really acuratley portray our time in WDW or the rest of our vacation (hence the reason for the + sign but more on that later,) but despite those fears, I need this trip report. Our trip was magical and also more than a little crazy. There is a great deal of back story to it and I just can't get over it. I want to talk about it, but those willing to hear about it around here already have so I will share my story with you instead.

And now to begin with I bet you'd like some introductions. So here's a little info on my crazy, nutty, wonderful family.

ME: Krystal, 31yr old mom with a passion for reading and art. I've always loved Disney. My first trip to Disneyland at 11 is permanently etched in my memory and I've always wanted my children to experience the Disney magic.

DH: John, 38yr old Disabled UMC Veteran. John was involved in a training accident several years ago that left him seriously injured and complications after the fact left his permanently disabled. DH loves fantasy and Sci Fi and is a big Star Wars fan. He's my lovable Teddy Bear but he's got a bit of a Donald Duck personality especially when he's in pain which becomes very relevant to this trip (but more about that later). He's also not to fond of pictures which will be evident in the few I actually managed to get of him.

DD12 (soon to be 13): Tessa, Tess is an amazing singer and born performer, loves Tinkerbell, skulls and cross bones, purple and black. She's turning into a teenager with vengence. She has her moody spells and loves to text a bit too much for my taste (we had some texting issues this trip) but she is a great kid all around. She's the only one in our family with practically no medical issues and she's grown up a bit faster than I would have liked so it was good to see her immersed in being a kid. She's also a big part of the reason for this trip (again more on that later, I'm saying that alot already).

DD10 (11 in 2 days): Jenna, Jen is my little bookworm, she loves to learn and sucks up knowledge like a sponge. She's interested in everything and constantly asking qestions. She's also quite the little comedian. On this trip she became obsessed with Minnie Mouse!

DS9: Jonnie, Jonnie is my little miracle child. He was quite sick as an infant and had alot of unexplained illnesses but he's doing great now. Jonnie can make anyone smile, he's constantly coming up with the cutest comments. He loves Disney, he loves cartoons in general but before this trip I woulden't have said he had a favorite character (I'll save that for later it's a great story). Jonnie is also on the Autistic Spectrum, with ADHD and numerous learning disorders. It's important that you know this because it affects alot of things in our lives including of course our trip to WDW.

You decided to start one! Yay! Those are great pics of the kids. You never mentioned that you have a Tessa too (or did you?). That makes three of us on the DIS, and I've only ever met one in real life. Weird. You've mentioned the miracles of this trip before, so I'm anxious for you to remember the details and unfold them before our eyes.

You decided to start one! Yay! Those are great pics of the kids. You never mentioned that you have a Tessa too (or did you?). That makes three of us on the DIS, and I've only ever met one in real life. Weird. You've mentioned the miracles of this trip before, so I'm anxious for you to remember the details and unfold them before our eyes.

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I don't think I did mention it. I followed you over to your PTR because you mentioned your Tessa but I got so caught up in your story I don't think I mentioned my Tessa. Like you I don't find that many Tessa's in real life. Tessa hates it. She actually asked me if we could call her Teresa so she woulden't be the only one around with her name.

Joining in!! What great pictures!! I can't wait to hear about your trip!!!

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Welcome! Thanks for the compliments on the pics. Tess hates the second one of her she thinks it looks funny cuz it's grainy. I can't seem to convince her it's supposed to be that way. The rest of them are from this fall. The pic of Jen with the big bunch of flowers was while she was playing around pretending to be famous. I think she was making me call her Madonna.

LOL! Well, you can tell her that there's a Tessa in AZ who thinks it's so cool that she has the same name. I showed her the pics and highlighted the name and asked her to read it. She said, all excited, TESSA!!

LOL! Well, you can tell her that there's a Tessa in AZ who thinks it's so cool that she has the same name. I showed her the pics and highlighted the name and asked her to read it. She said, all excited, TESSA!!

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Oh I'll definatley tell her that! She will be thrilled. I'll have to show her your PTR.

Krystal, as a mom visiting WDW for the first time EVER, with my dd, ds and dh, i'm looking forward to reading your report!

Your kiddos are lovely!

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Well I'm hopeful my story will be helpful. The lady who gave us our first visit buttons seemed surprised that it was the first time there for all of us! Thanks, I think my kids are pretty pretty darn cute but I know I'm biased.

I've said before that there was a story behind this trip and I can't tell you about the trip without telling you how it came about. Of course in order to do that I have to tell you a little more about myself and my family. I married my highschool sweetheart and had Tess right out of highschool and like most girls I was sure we would live happily ever after. Now as you might have guessed it diden't quite work out that way but by the time I realized that I had Jenna and was pregnant with Jonnie. There were alot of issues in my marriage but boy was it hard to leave knowing I was going to be a single mom to three young children. When I left Tess was just over three and Jenna was about 14 mo. I figured I was done, done with marriage, done with depending on a man, all of that. Well through some weird circumstances I met DH just a few months later. He lived in a different state and he'd call me occasionaly to see how I was doing. He became my best freind but I still thought that was all he would ever be. He helped me through the worst time in my life and I was there for him through the aftermath of the accident that changed his life, the loss of his sqaud and his medical discharge from the Marine Corp. He fought that discharge so hard! Being a Marine was his idenity and he had planned for it to be his career but when it became inevitable that he was in fact getting out and he had to decide what to do he decided to do his Voc Rehab close to where I lived. Well the Voc Rehab diden't work out. All the extra complications made him unemployable and so began the long hard journey to get his benefits. Meanwhile I was struggling to find out what was wrong with my baby boy and spending most of my time in the hospital. Family members were helping with the girls so that I could be with my son and John started spelling me off at the hospital. Well it isen't hard to figure out that I eventually realized that my best freind was so much more than that, but
I'm getting ahead of myself, John hung out around my kids alot and one thing that always bothered him was that every time a Disney commercial would come on Tess would run to the TV yelling "my daddy's going to take me there, he is, he promised." Well John and I both knew that wasen't going to happen my ex had made that promise when we were still married and lived an hour from Disneyland but well we knew "daddy" wasen't really going to keep that promise, and Disney wasen't even an option for a single mom who coulden't keep a job due to all the times her son was in the hospital and the fact that his doctors diden't want him exposed to all the germs in day care until they could figure out what to do for him. So fast forward to a couple of years later when John and I were about to get married Tessa was still doing the same thing only now she would follow up with qestions about why "daddy" (who diden't visit much anyway) diden't keep his promise. It was heartbreaking and one day after Tess did it John promised me that some day he would make up for that broken promise. As I said it was a long fight to get his benefits and there were alot of struggles with his health along the way. At one point he was in a coma on life support but eventually everything came together and he was granted unemployability and disability from the VA but SS diden't agree. John had enough credits to recieve SS disability but they kept denying him. Finally in Febuary 2009 he won his appeal and was granted retroactive benefits. On our way home from that hearing with absolutley no idea how much he would be getting eigther retroactively or monthly John told me it diden't matter how much he got there was one thing he had to do (I was expecting something crazy) but instead he followed up with "I have to take the kids to Disney World. Now! Before Tessa is way too old for the magic!" I was shocked. I'd pretty much forgotten about it, filed it away as one of those things that just diden't exist in the reality of our lives but John haden't he was determined to keep his promise and make up for his little girl being hurt so many years ago. We kept it a secret while we waited to find out how our income would change and by July when everything was finalized John was bursting at the seams. He was like a kid in a candy store when he finally broke the big news to the kids!

Oaky I know I really should be posting about our trip but I'm absolutley exhausted. Yesterday was my dd(now)11's birthday and we've recently started celebrating birthdays with family sleepovers. Jenna and her sister (who's birthday is in a month) are sharing a big birthday party in 3 wks. I'm renting out the locl skating rink and buying two multi-tiered birthday cakes so they can invite pretty much everyone they know for an afternoon of skating but I diden't want Jenna's actual birthday to pass without acknowledging it so I made a molten choclate cake, bought TV dinners (her request, she almost always asks for TV dinners for her birthday dinner ), and dragged mattresses and sleeping bags into the living room. We ate and watched movies and ate some more and watched more movies. We watched , Fly me to the Moon, Imagine That, Bedtime Stories, and Beverly Hills Chihuahua and I finally feel asleep somewhere around 3 am. It was a long, good night and Jenna had a blast which was the point but I feel totally fried.